Save Article

France's Punch Drunk Unions

Drinking liquor while directing rail traffic is now a human right.

Updated Sept. 29, 2014 7:46 p.m. ET

Don't be alarmed if that train you're expecting in Paris shows up at the wrong station or fails to show up at all: The railway workers are exercising their human right to drink on the job. They'll sober up in a bit.

That, in so many words, was the position taken by the General Confederation of Labor, or CGT, and two other French unions that last week went on strike after two employees of the state railway network were suspended for two days without pay for drinking rum punch while operating train signals. Four others involved...